Working big, while staying small
iIt doesn’t take a big land trust to be a great land trust. By “playing above their weight,” small land trusts can achieve conservation gains that rival those with more staff and deeper pockets. The 72% of land trusts that operate with three or fewer full-time staff achieve more with less on a daily basis.
And that especially holds true in underserved places like the Pelican State.
“We are, quite literally, the only statewide accredited locally-based land trust in Louisiana,” says Cindy Brown, executive director of the accredited Land Trust for Louisiana. “We fill a really important niche, but because we’re small and nimble we take on a lot. We get thrown a lot of projects by groups like Ducks Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy.”
Size hasn’t been — and shouldn’t be — a dealbreaker for land trusts. Taken together, local land trusts have a big collective impact. As revealed by the 2020 Census, 70% of the acreage protected since 2015 was achieved by state and local land trusts — not big national groups. Still, Brown says it’s even more important for small land trusts to stay focused, efficient and responsive as they pursue their mission.
For starters, when small land trusts are eager for growth, it’s easy for them to accept land for preserves that’s most available and affordable, or accept a marginal property from a well-intended donor that becomes a headache later. (Sometimes, the best land deals are the ones that land trusts don’t make.) Likewise, Brown says some of LTL’s early projects wouldn’t fit their criteria today. Instead of being opportunity-driven they’ve become “more proactive in matching opportunities to community needs.” This includes targeting preserves that offer floodwater retention or protecting rice farms that benefit wildlife, feed local economies and preserve cultural traditions.
Mitigation preserves are one way a small land trust like LTL has been able to grow. When corporations or governments damage natural areas, such as wetlands, they’re required by law to restore or purchase similar lands elsewhere to mitigate that loss. Rebuilding these areas can pay dividends in perpetuity, just as other land trust holdings do. LTL receives management fees for the easements they hold on seven mitigation properties that total more than 6,000 acres of wetlands, floodplains, bottomland hardwood forest and longleaf pine savanna. “I kind of wondered at first about the practice of mitigation,” Brown says. “But I’ve come to realize that these will become some of the state’s highest quality wild properties.”
It’s not always easy for small land trusts to get the attention and credibility they deserve, but here they can benefit from a mark of distinction that’s like the land trust version of the “S” on Superman’s cape: the infinity symbol that shows they’re an accredited land trust. To receive accreditation, land trusts undertake a thorough review of their practices in governance, finance, transactions and stewardship. Of the nation’s 1,281 trusts, 453 are accredited and they protect 81% of land and easements held by all land trusts.
LTL became an accredited land trust in 2015, before Brown arrived. “It was tough, I’ve heard the war stories,” she says. “But it’s hugely important to say we’ve passed these incredibly rigorous standards to receive accreditation.” And, it’s this process itself that proves invaluable. It requires land trusts to take stock, fill operational gaps and plan wisely to achieve what the infinity icon promises: to protect land in perpetuity.
As a “small and nimble” land trust, LTL has learned to readily focus on emergent needs. Consider the cluster of pushpins that hover over St. Tammany Parish on LTL’s statewide property map. They represent five LTL properties on the vulnerable North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. The North Shore has increasingly become a refuge for residents who build homes there to flee hurricanes that batter the Gulf Coast. These lush lands upstream from Lake Pontchartrain can provide much-needed flood storage and storm surge protection, but only if left undeveloped.
Now, LTL has become a key conservation partner in this fast-growing region. “The coast is moving and there’s no doubt that the North Shore will become our new coast at some point,” Brown says. “We have to build in enough natural resiliency to help plug the holes.”